


Flame

by WarlordFelwinter



Series: Destiny / OC-centric [9]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 00:53:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12947772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarlordFelwinter/pseuds/WarlordFelwinter
Summary: origin story





	Flame

On. Off. On. Off. 

The Awoken girl stared at the lighter as she clicked it on again, watching the little sparks jump into a flame. Below her, in the hangar, she heard someone shout. An engine started up and a ship shot out of the doors a bit clumsily, followed a few seconds later by some of the guard. 

“Stolen,” she murmured, uninterested, still watching the flame. 

Something whizzed past her. Small. Glowing. She didn’t look up, but she saw when it came back and halted in front of her. 

“Hi,” it said. 

She clicked the lighter closed and looked up at a fist sized… something. It was glowing and floating, occasionally rotating little triangular fins around a central eye. 

“What are you?” she asked. 

“I’m a Ghost,” it said. 

She blinked, flicking the lighter open again. “What’s a ghost?” 

“I came from the Traveler,” it said, sounding proud. 

She remembered stories about that. Only vaguely. People didn’t talk about it out here. Not anymore. 

“How did you get in the Reef?” she asked. 

The Ghost bobbed slightly. “I’m looking for someone,” it said. “Someone very special.” 

“Who?” 

“I don’t know yet.” 

“Better not waste time, then,” she said, flicking the lighter a few more times. 

“I don’t think I am,” the Ghost said. It circled her once and looked over her shoulder at the lighter. “Why are you alone up here?” 

“I like it.” 

“Why?” 

“You ask a lot of questions for being so small,” she said. 

“I’m not  _ that _ small,” it said, offended. 

The Awoken reached up and grabbed the Ghost in a hand, raising her eyebrows at it before tossing it back out into the air. It shook itself. 

“What’s your name?” it asked, coming back over. 

“Mau.” 

“I’m Khepri,” it said. 

Mau looked at it properly, closing the lighter. “Why are you talking to me, Khepri?” 

“You looked like an interesting person to talk to,” it said. 

“No,” she corrected. “Aren’t you looking for someone?” 

“I don’t know,” Khepri said. “This feels… right. I think I was looking for you.” 

“Why?” 

“To share my Light with you. We feel like a match. I don’t know what drew me out this far, but I’m glad I came.” 

“What does that mean… Light? I’m not anyone special. I don’t even know what you are, why would we match?” 

“I guess the Traveler thought you were special,” Khepri said. “It made me and I was made for you.” 

“How can you be sure?” 

“Have faith.” 

Mau snorted. 

“What do you say?”

“I don’t know what I’m agreeing to.” 

“I don’t really know either. I’ve been travelling by myself since the Collapse. But I guess something must happen. There must be some reason I found you.” 

“I guess.” 

“I’ll take that as a yes?” Khepri asked. Mau inclined her head slightly. 

Light burst out of the little machine and slammed into Mau, a choked cry escaping her throat before she blacked out. 

 

_ Mau? Mau wake up! _

Mau opened her eyes slowly, trying to adjust to new sensations. Something was burning inside her. Khepri was hovering over her. 

“Are you okay?” it asked and she heard it in her head as well, along with confusing sounds and images she didn’t recognize. She winced. 

“Sorry, the symbiosis might take a while to get used to. How are you feeling?” 

“Hot,” Mau managed. Her heart wasn’t racing and she wasn’t sweating, but she felt like she was burning up. She sat up, slowly. 

Khepri darted around her, scanning her with some sort of light. “Your vitals are all good… I think it’s the Light. Give it a moment to settle. I’ll try to help.” 

Mau looked at her hand. She was shaking. She closed her eyes and tried to feel the new energy within her. The heat was abating somewhat. It was still there, just not painful anymore. It felt… alive. She could feel it in her, pulsing and swirling and changing. And then it began to flicker, like a flame. 

Mau opened her eyes and made a motion with her hand, like she was flicking open a lighter, and her hand burst into flame. 

It didn’t hurt. She could feel the heat--the Light--burning in her hand, but it felt… nice? Empowering. She looked around for something to punch. 

“What are you…?” Khepri started to ask, as Mau leapt off her ledge and dropped to the catwalk, startling one of the engineers as she pelted straight at a storage crate, marked as scrap metal collected from the Reef. She reared back and slammed her fist into the box. 

Fire exploded around her, destroying the crate, and sending her tumbling through to the other side. She fell back, laughing for what felt like the first time she could remember. 

Khepri appeared above her in a haze of blue sparkles. She felt the Light dissipate, still warming her belly, but leaving her tired. She didn’t think she could do that again for a while. She could hear shouting somewhere, coming closer. 

“We should go,” she said, sitting up. “I don’t think I’ll be welcome here anymore… the Awoken don’t like the old stories… But… I think I want to see the Traveler.” 

“We’ll need a ship,” Khepri said. 

“Someone else just stole one,” Mau said. “We might as well.” 

Khepri floated up a bit and looked around. “How about that one?” it asked, looking at a small shuttle docked nearby. Before Mau could answer it buzzed over to the ship and started scanning it. Mau felt a strange pull behind her stomach and everything twisted for a moment before she found herself sitting in the pilot’s seat. 

_ Let’s go! _ Khepri said in her mind and she reached for the controls. She had never flown a ship, but surely it couldn’t be that hard, right? Before she could touch anything, the controls moved on their own and the ship darted out of the hangar and into the Reef. 

“Are you doing that?” 

Khepri appeared next to her. “Sorry, do you want to drive?” 

“No, I don’t know how.” 

“Me neither!” it said happily as it steered the ship through the wreckage and out into open space, before jumping. It felt like only a few moments before they came out into orbit around a planet. 

Mau leaned forward. “Wow…” She knew it from the old stories, from the marbled blue and green, strewn over with clouds. Earth. And there… 

“Is that it?” she asked quietly. 

“Yes,” Khepri said, taking them down into the atmosphere, flying over the trees, heading toward the Traveler. “Oh,” it said, puzzled. “There’s… a city.” 

Mau dropped onto the grass with the same gut wrenching transport, outside the small city, on a ledge. She could see more people than she had ever seen before in one place. Humans, mostly, but she saw a few Awoken, like her, and some that looked like machines. She looked up at the Traveler. 

“It’s… beautiful,” she said. “But sad.” 

“It’s dormant,” Khepri said. “Since the Collapse.” 

“Why do people live under it?” 

“Hope, I guess. There’s still Light here, it keeps away the Darkness. They probably feel safe.” 

Mau looked down at the people again. She wondered how many there were within the deeper parts of the city. Hundreds. Thousands, maybe. She watched a human run past one of the close houses and pause, holding out a hand. A Ghost appeared above it. 

“Hey, they have a Ghost too,” Mau said. 

The human looked up and waved at her, beckoning. Mau looked at Khepri, who shifted its fins in a sort of shrug. She stepped off the ledge and skidded down the small hillside. The human met her. She was a young woman, wearing a cloak and light armor. 

“You look lost,” she said. 

“I’m…” Mau paused. Lost was a good word for it. 

“We’re new,” Khepri said. 

“Oh, great!” the human said, beaming. “Another new Guardian! You look like a Titan, I bet. Come on!” She grabbed Mau’s hand and started heading into the City. “I’ll introduce you to the Lords. They’ll be able to teach you more about your Light and I bet you’ll want to know all about the Traveler and the City, huh?” 

Mau nodded, a bit overwhelmed by how excited the woman was. She let herself be dragged along down narrow, confusing streets, only stopping when they reached another open area where she got a good look at the Traveler above them. The woman stopped too and looked with her. They were on a ridge and from here, Mau could see the City sprawling out under the shadow of the Traveler. Bigger than she had realized before. 

“It’s a lot,” the woman said, “but you’ll get used to it in no time. Welcome home, Guardian.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I felt like I'd been neglecting Mau lately, so here is a little bit of her beginning as a Guardian. She's like... super old. Old as balls. Came to the City back when the Iron Lords were still around.


End file.
